Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Monarda didyma L. cultivar Fireball.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Monarda plant, botanically known as Monarda didyma L., and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Fireball.
The new Monarda originated from a chance cross-pollination of two unidentified selections of Monarda didyma L., not patented. The new Monarda was discovered by the Inventor in 1995 in Rijpwetering, The Netherlands. Plants of the new Monarda differed primarily from plants of the unidentified parental selections in plant size and flower color.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by cuttings in Rijpwetering, The Netherlands since 1995, has shown that the unique features of this new Monarda are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plants of the cultivar Fireball have not been observed under all possible environmental and cultural conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature and light intensity without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Fireballxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Fireballxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct cultivar:
1. Upright, outwardly spreading and relatively short plant habit.
2. Freely flowering habit.
3. Red purple-colored flowers arranged in dense verticillasters.
Plants of the new Monarda can be compared to plants of the Monarda cultivar Squaw, not patented. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Rijpwetering, The Netherlands, plants of the new Monarda differed from of the cultivar Squaw in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Monarda were shorter than plants of the cultivar Squaw.
2. Plants of the new Monarda and the cultivar Squaw differed in flower color.